My axolotl has a bump on its side
This little axolotl has had quite the journey. A friend of mine had to get rid of it in a hurry, I knew I kept fish tanks. We got the 65 gallon with a AC110 filter over here, and I had a little bit of water from my 20 gallon to jumpstart the cycle, but unfortunately he had to go through an entire fish in cycle with very high levels ammonia at first. We got it cycled within the first week, with extra sachem stability and tons of ceramic rings, but with the low temps axolotls need, a couple plants i have experimented with have melted or rotted, and along with the axolotls high poop rate, it has been extra hard for me to keep his nitrates below 40. I do a 50% water change every week and it has just been jumping like crazy.
Ive been hoping the water lettuce, frog bit, jungle val, guppy grass, elodea, and a couple other plants would help stabilize the water but not as much as i had hoped. Here we are about 2 months later and my little dude has been getting these ridges and bumps. I saw similar things on other axolotle, but NOW there is a white curly little thing hanging off one of the creases of the bump. Does he have a parasite?!?
I feel awful about not setting this guy up properly for success, and my knowledge on tropical fish keeping was not enough for an emergency rescue with such a difficult cute unique little creature :( what should i do?! I want him to live 😭 he luckily still has a huge appetite and will eat up to twice a day, as it is about 10ish months old.